Big events such as Oktoberfest, Bengals, Reds and the Ohio Classic football games downtown drew about 750,000 people last weekend, pumping nearly $72 million into the local economy. Downtown types hope that for most of those people, it's more than a once-a-year outing.

The Cincinnati Reds finally opened their Museum and Hall of Fame, reliving the glory days of the Big Red Machine. Meanwhile, the 2004 version of the Reds posted its fourth straight losing season.

A tentative deal between Delta Air Lines and pilots should slow the early retirements of pilots who were afraid Delta would kill their pensions. But the struggling airline still says it needs $1 billion in pay concessions.

Cinergy Corp., Procter & Gamble Co. and TriHealth were named among the 100 best companies in America for working moms by Working Mother magazine - proof that creating a workplace that employees want to work in can be good business as well.

P&G is now a step closer to marketing its Intrinsa sex patch for women after applying in early summer and getting an accelerated review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The target market is post-menopausal women who suffer from low sexual desire.

It took nearly a year for First Financial Bancorp to find a new chief executive, finally choosing Claude Davis, who is now senior vice president of Irwin Financial Corp. in Columbus, Ind.

KENTUCKY CONNECTION

It looks like the Florence Freedom will be on the field next spring, with owners negotiating a contract with new investors. Plenty of contractors might not get paid back fully, and the investigation of part owner Chuck Hildebrant continues. But that's for the lawyers. Let's play two.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Enzyte is more successful subtracting from the male wallet than it is adding to the male organ." This from David Schardt of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that has gone after Forest Park-based Berkeley Premium Neutraceuticals and its Enzyte male-enhancement product. The group, which says the Enzyte ad is deceptive, has a track record of bedeviling companies. Just as Procter & Gamble Co. about olestra.